02/06/2024 – 18:54
The USA, Qatar and Egypt defend a lasting truce in the conflict in the Gaza Strip. Washington believes that Israelis will accept the pact, despite members of Netanyahu’s cabinet threatening to “dissolve the government”. International mediators have worked in recent days to try to convince the leaders of Israel and the extremist group Hamas to sign the proposal for a new cease-fire. fire in the conflict in the Gaza Strip, presented last Friday by the President of the United States, Joe Biden.
The American leader presented the plan as initially being an Israeli idea, despite the Israeli government criticizing some points of the agreement. The White House, however, remains confident that Israel will accept the proposal after Hamas signs it.
Shortly after Biden’s announcement, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu insisted that his country must continue its offensive in Gaza until it achieves all its objectives, including the destruction of Hamas.
“Israel’s conditions for ending the war have not changed: the destruction of Hamas’ military and government capabilities, the release of all hostages, and the guarantee that Gaza no longer poses a threat to Israel,” the Israeli leader said in a statement. released on Friday.
Negotiations have been carried out for months with the intermediation of the governments of the USA, Qatar and Egypt. Efforts, however, have proven fruitless since the short-lived November 2023 truce, when Hamas released some Israeli hostages in exchange for the release of a number of Palestinian prisoners.
What does the proposal say
In his first speech outlining a possible end to the conflict, the US president said Israel’s three-stage offer would begin with a six-week phase in which Israeli forces would withdraw from all populated areas of Gaza.
The plan would also include the release of all hostages, in exchange for the release of hundreds of Palestinian prisoners. Israel and Hamas would then, during those six weeks, negotiate a lasting ceasefire – but the truce would continue as long as the talks were ongoing. The proposal also includes the beginning of a major effort to rebuild Gaza.
In a statement late Friday, Hamas said it “positively viewed” Biden’s speech on “a permanent ceasefire, the withdrawal of Israeli forces from Gaza, reconstruction and prisoner exchanges.”
The militant group has insisted for days that it is willing to reach a deal to release the hostages in exchange for Palestinian prisoners in Israeli prisons, as long as Israel ends the war in Gaza, where more than 36,400 people have already been killed, according to sources. doctors linked to the administration of the Gaza Strip, controlled by Hamas.
In a joint statement released this weekend, the American, Qatari and Egyptian governments called on both sides to accept the proposal.
Ultra-right threatens to “dissolve” Israeli government
Netanyahu’s advisor Ophir Falk stated in an interview published this Sunday (02/05) in the British newspaper Sunday Times that, despite “several details that need to be worked out”, the Israeli government would accept the proposal. “It’s not a good deal, but we really want the hostages released, all of them.”
The agreement, however, risks destabilizing Netanyahu’s coalition government, after two of his ministers threatened to leave the cabinet if the proposal is approved.
The Minister of National Security, Itamar Ben-Gvir, even stated that his party “will dissolve the government” if the pact is signed. Also ultra-rightist Belazel Smotrich, head of the Ministry of Finance, opposed the proposal and defended the continuation of the war until the total destruction of Hamas.
However, opposition leader Yair Lapid and war cabinet member Benny Gantz expressed support for the proposal and promised to help the government pass it in the Knesset (Israeli Parliament) if Netanyahu’s allies refuse to do so.
rc (AFP, AP, dpa, Reuters)
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